An Inconvenient Polar Bear

The story this week that hasn’t received much play in the mainstream media is about a new book by environmentalist Zac Unger titled “Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye”. His goal was to document the decline of the Polar Bear population. He undertook this task by moving his wife and 3 children to remote northern Manitoba, Canada. Normally, books from these types of authors get tremendous coverage since they are usually peddling the latest hysterical fear of what humans are doing to destroy the planet. The problem in this case is that he found the exact opposite of what he expected. The problem this presents is that it counters an assumed domino effect in the theory of Climate Change: Global Warming causes the polar ice caps to melt, the lack of ice decimates the Polar Bear habitat, their population goes toward extinction, oceans rise, all humans die. This book challenges an almost religious orthodoxy on the liberal left. It does not fit the media template and has been almost ignored. If this story got the attention that it deserved, there would be the natural question…What else is not true about Climate Change?

It turns out that this story is not that unique. A recent Canadian Government study claimed that the population of Polar Bears has been increasing since the 1970’s. The local Inuit people go even further to say that the population is increasing even in areas where the study had population flat or down. Why isn’t the environmental movement celebrating this fact? Why can you only find stories about this new book on Fox News? Why are environmentalists still lobbying the US Fish and Wild Life Service to change the classification of Polar Bear’s from “threatened” to “endangered”? The ongoing myth about Polar Bears fits the political agenda of Climate Change, and the truth would really get in the way.

Bison in North America were once headed toward extinction. It has been reported that their numbers were as low as 2,000 near the end of the 1800’s. The Bison population has recovered to over 500,000, and it is a wonderful success story about restoring a species. The wild Bison have come back, and farm raised Bison are popular due to their very lean meat. Bison burgers are moving from posh eateries to everyday restaurants. The media has reported this story, and they usually like a feel good story like this. Yet we have not seen similar attention to the good news about Polar Bears.

Even before Al Gore’s movie about Global Warming (which he has morphed into Climate Change and now calls Climate Crisis), the NY Times, Washington Post, and the major networks bought into the theory, hook line & sinker. They are now committed to promoting this belief, regardless of the facts that may surface. The current President also is a true believer, and is determined to do what he can to, “Heal the planet”. Eventually, McDonalds or some other restaurant will solve the Polar Bears overpopulation problem with a new menu item. This does not deal with the shamelessness of the media taking an advocacy position on a issue that will have wrenching policy ramifications. Lack of reporting on these new facts shows this complicity, and it won’t be solved with a special sauce.

About Michael Porfido

Michael has been an editor and contributor at the website www.freemarketsfreepeople.net for over 2 years. He has over 20+ years of diverse business experience, from running complex operations where he managed hundreds of people, to starting and running small businesses such as www.realinterestfund.com. He is blessed, or perhaps cursed, with a logical mind which he uses to analyze government, media, politics, and culture. He believes that his life experiences help him bring a unique perspective to the issues of the day.

Of course we all still waiting for you to explain how CO2 increases that occur 600 years AFTER an established change in the planets temperature CAUSE global warming

John

I have taught marine science for 32 years. Simple data: carbon dioxide traps infrared. More CO2 equals more heat (280 ppm now up to 400 ppm). Bernie, why is the ocean becoming more acidic? The ocean, through a complex process, stores carbon. Now, it is storing less and making CO2 in the water into carbonic acid. Tell Oregon oystermen that global is not real as their harvest perishes. Go watch “Chasing Ice” by James Balog: your eyes will not lie to you. The Arctic had a record melt this summer. This article is pure nonsense. I teach in Salem: I will leave two chairs open for you guys. You need to learn some basic science. Lastly: the media is dishonest? It sure is. There is no liberal media: there is corporate media with large inholding of fossil fuel stock. And your comment about bison is beyond foolish. As the bison numbers dropped: they lost their genetic diversity. That is bad news. What is worse news ….is when a business man pretends that he knows science. Come see me and learn some science. God Bless, John F. Borowski

cmacrider

tell us about feed backs since the universe is not a closed system as your little school science model keeps suggesting

mememine

Fact: Upon settlement polar bears were indigenous to as far south as Minnesota but called the yellow bear because of the summer coat they retained longer but still the same bear! THEY DON’T EAT ICEBERGS!

John Daly

I put this column on one of my friend’s Facebook walls, since she’s been annoying me for years with her “Save the polar bears” posts and emails. She was not amused.

moronpolitics

The idea that a polar bear that can survive in one on the most inhospitable situations on earth would starve should they find themselves surrounded by 100’s of times more food is asinine to begin with. They already wander down into Southern Alaska and inland areas of Canada and not only don’t starve, they manage to impregnate some of the Grizzlies — creating a huge nasty hybrid that also survives just fine. Hmmm…Maybe someone should ship one of THOSE suckers to Al Gore.

“The idea that a polar bear that can survive in one on the most inhospitable situations on earth would starve should they find themselves surrounded by 100’s of times more food is asinine to begin with.”
Let me guess–you think that if the oceans disappeared thatr it would actually be good for sharks, being that they would no longer need to worry about drowning.

FloridaJim

The video showing the polar bear on a shrinking ice floe was staged by Green Peace or some other anti American site to prove a lie. Climate change is simply a scam to provide grant funding for professors who attest to the ridiculous redistribution plan of the left funded by George Soros and his paid workers employed at Media Matters and 100 other such Soros’ funded scams to support America’s decline. Chris Horner has many fine books which document and source the truth about global warming and who benefits from it and why. “Red Hot Lies” being one book but he has several others.

” Climate change is simply a scam to provide grant funding for professors who attest to the ridiculous redistribution plan of the left funded by George Soros and his paid workers employed at Media Matters and 100 ”
If this were the 1930s you would be ranting about the Jews.

Drew Page

My feeling about the MSM can best be simmed up with a quote from Mark Twain when he said “To not read the news is to be uninformed. To read the news is to be misinformed.” It is not only pathetic that the MSM can no longer be trusted to report the news objectively, it is dangerous. No information is better than misinformation and far better than disinformation.

Thank you, Bernie, and the rest of you, for keeping logic and rational thought alive.

cmacrider

Michael: As a Canadian, I could not stop laughing as I envisaged some American trudging around the arctic attempting to “prove” the demise of the polar bear. He could have phoned the Department of Natural Resources on his cell phone, saved the frost bite and they would have been more than happy to tell him the polar bear is doing quite nicely. Part of the reason their numbers have not declined, so I understand, is because they have been able to supplement their usual diet with the occasional goofy global warming idiot.

mememine

Upon settlement polar bears were indigenous to as far south as Minnesota but called the yellow bear because of the summer coat they retained longer but still the same bear.

Iklwa

A large financial incentive to preserve the American Bison
rises from the sale of hunting license and guided hunts.

As the sporting value of the animal has increased, the
demand for higher quality trophy animals continues to rise. The funds raised
invariably get cycled back into habitat restoration and better understanding of
the Bison’s biological needs.

“Conservation” efforts banning the hunting of rhinoceros led
to the virtual destruction of the White and Black rhino in Africa.
The lack of funds to keep wardens in the field led to wholesale slaughter for
the oriental drug market and for the use of rhino horn in ornamentation.

If we apply the proven North American Hunting Conservation
practices pioneered by groups such as the Boone and Crocket Club, The Wild
Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited and Safari Club International that led to
the return of White Tail deer, Elk, Wild Turkey, American Bison and other game
animals to our Polar Bear population, we will wind up with a healthier
population. If they are placed onto a banned list, their extermination will be guaranteed.

It kind of makes one wonder how we should control the
population explosion of liberals in America.

Drew Page

How should we control the population explosion of liberals in America? Among my solutions, I would propose that all those preaching the ill effects of “global warming” be forbidden to own any device that runs on gasoline, natural gas, oil or coal, or electricity generated from these fuels or from atomic energy, including vehicles, home heating and cooling devices. these progressives should also be forbidden to travel by air, bus or train that use such fuels. I think Al Gore should set the example here.

Iklwa

Drew,

You should know by now that there is no difference in the
minds of liberals between complaining about an “issue” (i.e. exhibiting public
displays of concern, rending of garments, wearing of ash, etc.) and actually
doing something in one’s own life to combat the heinous problem. Therefore, all
one has to do to assuage one’s conscience is to complain and “raise awareness”.

No one would dare suggest Mr. Gore take the bus to lessen
his carbon footprint.

We all know he is such an important man and needs to get his
message out…even if it does come from the air conditioned cabin of a private
jet cruising the stratosphere at 600 mph.

Paratisi

You do have to give them some credit, though. Anyone who can pull off such a Blatantly See Through Scam and get all these people in power to join in on SCAM, is far and away, one of the greatest Con Men in history. You know very well, if you or I were to have come up with this SCAM(That’s been Debunked by a Dollar Store Calculator), we would be under the jail. Bernie Madoff, would be more respected & accepted.

It’s been shown, that the only way to fight these animals effectively, is to humiliate them and laugh at them for their lack of intellect/intelligence. Don’t try to argue “Science” on this subject. The only science used are straw men, that cause endless circular arguments. Get to the point, the Climate Fraud Artist doesn’t want to talk about. When you turn the conversation to, What percentage of the entire atmosphere is Man-Made Co2, they run like Usain Bolt!

I looked into this issue last year and found that in most of the arctic area inhabited by polar bears no one has ever done an actual nose count. In fact much of the area is part of Russia and as far as anyone knows the they have never conducted a nose count of polar bears in their area. Most of the polar bear “counting” is only an estimate, or a guess. It even seems that polar bears are culled in some areas because there are just so many and permits are issued for such a purpose. So the whole sales pitch that polar bears will disappear was just that…a sales pitch. Gore is laughing all the way to the bank. PT Barnum was right….again.

Shane

Polar bears are doing fine! Tell everybody you know.

christopher mahoney

Only a moron would believe that polar bears wouldn’t welcome warmer weather. They have adapted to survive cold weather, but it doesn’t benefit them. There is a whole lot of land above the arctic circle where they can thrive without the ice.

Kevin

Don’t forget Climategate (remember that one?) in which a Nobel Prize winning professor at Penn State University, fudged the data that was proving the earth was NOT warming to fit his global warming narrative, and encouraged his colleagues around the not-so-much-warming globe to do the same. The left just glossed over that gross misconduct and said never mind, we still believe.

Penn State University for its part did a full investigation and found…nothing. Surprised? Then you haven’t been watching the news about Penn State in the last year and a half. Can’t let those federal research grants or all that football money be put at risk. Al Gore would be proud of such moral principles. I heard Al Jazeera TV just signed a contract to televise Penn State football games next year because it shared the journalistic principles of the university. Meanwhile, thanks to a money driven culture of corruption and cover up, I cannot find an incandescent 100 watt light bulb anywhere and nobody in America trusts their son’s coach. Food prices are spiking because the corn is in my gas tank, and we are told we have to be “green” to be responsible. Al Gore is the only one getting greener.

The article is garbasge.
The increase in the polar bear population was due to increased restricftions on hunting of polar bears. Global warming, contrary to what you nuts think, was not disproven–while global warming is indeed killing polar bears, and bullet to the head still does kill them faster.

wally12

The question is not whether the global climate is warming. Most scientists and many people agree. What these people do not agree is that the warming is caused by humans and specifically the burning of fossil fuel and the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere. The earth has been warming continuously since the ice age with periods of cooling and warming. Two of these episodes were the mini ice age and the medieval warm spell. None of these were caused by humans. Next you are attempting to convince us that the polar bears are being killed by warming but that humans have stopped killing as many so the net effect is an increase in polar bears. If that is true, show us the facts on polar bears killings by humans and the exact killing by warming. So far I haven’t seen the actual proof from the climate change people nor do I think you will produce such evidence. Last, nature dumps 24,000 times the amount ofCO2 into the air as humans do. Also, CO2 is a very weak greenhouse gas and has the ability to trap radiate heat from the earth but is miniscule compared to the greatest green house gas, water vapor in clouds which are responsible for 95% of the greenhouse effect. Liberals and these environmentalists are very similar. They both tend to take the item which has the least affect on the problem and assume it has the worst. If you do not believe, compare the gun control issue with CO2 control. They are a match.

Patrick H.

Also, perhaps if liberals didn’t try to solve everything with big government, conservatives would be more open minded to the debate on global warming.

“The question is not whether the global climate is warming. Most scientists and many people agree. What these people do not agree is that the warming is caused by humans and specifically the burning of fossil fuel and the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere.”
There is no disagreement amonng serious scientists. The “dissent” is from polical nuts. The sort of nut who yell “liberal” at things they are told on the radio are “liberal”.
” The earth has been warming continuously since the ice age with periods of cooling and warming”
That is as dumb as yelling that being that Jews have died for thousandsf years that there was no Holocaust during World War 2.

wally12

You haven’t answered my question. Show me the proof that the number of bears being killed has decreased and by the specific amount and also the actual number of polar bears starving during the same time periods. If you can do this for say 3 years in a row,I will research your findings and agree or tell you where you made an error in your findings. As to your last statement of the Jewish death over 1000 years and the holocaust.during WWII leaves me completely lost. Sorry. Try again. On the matter of nuts who say there is no significant affect by humans for global warming, please refer to the large number of great scientists that have written a letter to the government and stated that humans are an insignificant factor on global warming. It isn’t from any media source. Look it up.

Dominic

The Obama zombie virus has spread into your uninformed brain.Get help soon!

“The Obama zombie virus has spread into your uninformed brain.Get help soon!”
How did you determine that I am an Obama supporter?
Oh yes, anyone who points out that the increase in polar bear population was due to restrictions in hunting must be a Secret Muslim from Kenya. A true conservattive knows that shooting a polar bear in the head cannot kill the bear (source: NRA) and this is all a plot to get socialized medicine for polar bears.

cmacrider

Tell us about how your science of reverse causation actually works

Drew Page

Typical liberal. Someone has a different opinion than yours and you start name calling — “The article is garbage.” “Contrary to what you nuts think…”
Show provable evidence that global warming is killing polar bears.

“Typical liberal. Someone has a different opinion than yours and you start name calling”
In a post vwhere he condemns name calling..he engagfes in name calling!!!!!!
And of course, knowing nothing at all about my political views, he assumes I am a liberal because Rush Lionbaugh told him that global warming” was a “liberal” idea.

Copa101

If you want to live on a planet with a stable environment you will need to move to Venus or Mercury. The environment on this planet is and always has been unstable.

Tell the Truth!

Any eighth grader with an Earth Science book and an un-biased teacher can show in detail the epochs from the great Ice Age (10,000 years ago) to the present time.
We in the real world know about the devastation and plague that visited the middle ages during the mini-ice age that was called the “Dark Ages”. In the 1970’s, I do remember the frightening headlines when highly educated “climatologists” called for a new cold period coming soon. MOTHER EARTH,WHERE IS THE THERMOSTAT!
The current idiocy is a complete ruse to convince soverign governments to tax the developed countries and give to the developing countries, with a very comfortable amount of the tax booty to be kept in the pockets of politicians and their benefactors.
This administration is following a course precisely outlined in Dinesh D’Souza’s book and the mainstream media is complicit in the killing of the American Dream. Canadian Polar bears are doing much better than American businessmen…

nickshaw

When a CNN anchor (which, in this case, is such an appropriate title because she is as dumb as one!), Deb Feyerick, asks Bill Nye (The Science Guy? Seriously?) if an approaching asteroid may be somehow connected to Climate Change, you know the “movement” (again, so appropriate) is at the end of it’s rope.

The crash and burn of the environazis is, in a way, analogous to the coming collapse of progressivism in America. The statements, predictions and proclamations become more and more outlandish that even the slowest start to think, “Hold on, that can’t be right.”
Things like the deliberate concealment of the political leanings of a mass murderer, Dorner, to the real cost of Obamacare to Skeeter himself now known to be MIA during the Benghazi debacle and now the holy grail of progressives, Global Warming are all little threads being pulled that will make progressives out to be the snake oil salesmen they always have been.
Their shaky house of cards is about to collapse in a hail of mocking laughter. It will come amazingly quickly too.
And we won’t have to fire a shot.

Ted Crawford

Isaac Newton explained the cause of climate change in 1755, Seth Chandler in 1891, Milutin Milankovitch during WWI, and Hays, Imbrie, and Shackleton PROVED it in 1976, interestingly enough that ended the last attempt by this redistributionists to hy-jack our Energy Industry!
Nutations, or Chandlers Wobble!

joer1

The fact that the media is dishonest and manipulative is well established … thanks in large part to Bernie. The question is … want can be done about it? Clearly, the J-Schools are populated with Liberals and they are complicit. The issue remains and I am stumped. Certainly, shining the light on them seems effective but, we constantly let them off the hook. When NBC was found to be editing stories to suit their agenda, the network said those involved were fired but, they declined to identify them … so, were they really fire them? If they were let go, did they just move over to another network? We don’t know.

nickshaw

Would that be like employees of the Department of State or the ATF, Joer?
When liberals groom good little bots to carry out the agenda as ordered they are loathe to actually dump them.
Their problem is, we have really started to notice what the game is.
Liberals like to gloat over how they won the election. They ignore the fundamental meaning of the final numbers though.

They are on the decline.
That’s why the new Skeeter Superpac was created to campaign all the time. Some of them have noticed too.

Drew Page

The Dept of Justice says those responsible for Fast & Furious were “let go”, but let to g where, other government jobs? The State Department and President Obama refused to answer questions about who refused to answer the calls for help from the Americans attacked in Benghazi, saying they are waiting for the results of “the investigation”. Hillary accepts the responsibility, but none of the blame because after all, “at this point what difference does it make?”
Being a parent of teenage children, I have heard just about every excuse and evasion when taking them to task for their misdeeds. I thought I had heard everything until I heard the “testimony” of Obama, Hillary, Leon Panetta and the various people allegedly responsible for the safety and security of our ambassador and the other dead Americans at the Benghazi consulate.
Perhaps I’m being too hard on Hillary. She didn’t read her e-mail messages. Is this a surprise in an environment where legislators don’t read the legislation they vote on and the president doesn’t read the legislation he signs into law and the former Speaker of the House of Representatives tells the american public that proposed legislation must be signed into law in order to find out what’s in it? If reading legislation before voting on it or signing it into law is too much trouble, legislators and the president should have informed the voting public about this prior to their election. If I’m not mistaken, this is the job they were elected to do.
I remember the umbrage taken by a number of legislators including Arlen Specter and John Conyers when they were chastised by constituents for not reading the provisions of Obamacare before they voted for it. Their defense was to the effect “we don’t have time to read all of the proposed legislation sent to us” My question to them is, what do think you were elected to do? You weren’t elected to do manual labor or manage a factory or teach a class; you were elected represent your constituents which you can’t responsibly do when you vote on legislation you don’t read.

gbandy

Well the real cause of any decline in Polar Bears is the Eskimos found out they taste like chicken… OK ok just a joke. However when a population is so misinformed to think people really can change the environment to the extinction of entire species they must realize just 10k years ago the area of the Great Lakes was covered by a Glacier one mile thick. Global Warming came along and melted the ice and bingo we now have the Great Lakes. Now is Gore implying cavemen had SUV’s? Or burned coal for electricity???? Oh wait they had no TV;s than so who needed electricity.

Precisely! But there’s no money in promoting that man has little to do with weather and natural fluctuations in the earth’s climate. Even the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC is the primary promoter of so-called “global warming”) in a report leaked to the press suggests that solar energy has a much larger impact that previously thought. Over the next several years, the globalists will move off of the silly lie and come up with another “reason” to dominate the world.

begbie

10K years is just a blink of an eye. We’re still coming out of that ice age and we’ll get much warmer before the cycle starts again. Also, the Great lakes won’t be around for much longer due to the ongoing crust upheaval…a rebound from having all that weight of ice “suddenly” gone. That coupled with the climate warming will ensure a they’ll be gone soon. The Great Lakes are just puddles left over from a rainstorm.

OregonBuzz

AGW, Climate Change, Climate Crisis whatever Algore and his hysterical tribe want to call it is a hoax. The true thrust of all this misinformation and outright lies is to gain control of the means of production on a world wide basis by forcing industries, large and small to “control” CO2. A large segment of these nervous nellies don’t even understand photosynthesis.

No Global Warming says the scientific evidence and empirical data. Hmmmm…why don’t we hear about this blared out from the Criminal Mainstream Media? What’s that you say, it does not fit their Leftist Eco-Terror Environmental Narrative? You know, the one that destroys our US Economy in the hope that we can “spread the wealth” to dirt-bag 3rd World Countries that only wish Harm and Destruction to the United States?

The EPA is waging War on the US Economy. It is time to eliminate this costly, ineffectual and evil Enemy that exists within the Federal Government. It has outlived it’s useful good for the Nation.

Likewise it is time to dump the Departments of Energy and Education. They are self serving Bureaucracies that steal $$$ and real Energy from the Nation. These three bureaus are Criminal and deserve to be immediately shutdown. These three departments are NOT Constitutional in any stretch of the document.

DOOM161

Once a year, Americans look to a groundhog for his weather forecast. Is there any surprise that the same people listen to Al Gore’s weather predictions?

deerbarb

Good point

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